AT the full council meeting on Wednesday, Cllr Roger Hayes tabled a question to the leader of the council as to how much it had cost Bolton Council in October, 2015, to report the British government to the United Nations for suspected breach of minimum standards on people’s access to food, clothing and housing as set out in the UN Economic and Social Rights Convention.

Cllr Hayes gave us a sense of why it was a council meeting-tabled question when he said he thought contacting the UN in October, 2015, had been bizarre.

In October, 2015, a council motion in my name setting out the worsening poverty experience of too many people and too many families in the Bolton borough contained the action of reporting the matter to the United Nations section made available for such matters.

Cllr Hayes voted for that motion. Poverty and inequality have worsened under both the coalition and Conservative governments and Bolton Labour has always campaigned against this and promoted, funded and supported anti-poverty action in our borough.

In September, 2013, a United Nations Special Rapporteur had already visited Manchester to hear about the cruel personal effects of the Bedroom Tax.

In August, 2017, the United Nations, in a damning report, denounced the British government for failing to protect disabled people’s rights to a basic quality of life due in the main to government harsh austerity policies.

By 2017, more councils in England had action by the UN in motions on their meeting agendas.

In the course of these events, with a full understanding of the terrible inequality that exists in this borough, much comfortable wealth living just streets away from unfair poverty, we were one of the first councils in England to hit out and report our government on poverty.

In June this year, the United Nations informed the British Prime Minister that it is sending its Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Prof Alston to investigate poverty and hardship in Britain after eight years of austerity government policy.

The council leader informed Cllr Hayes that it had cost Bolton Council £1.50 to report the British government to the United Nations in October, 2015.

Cllr Sue Haworth

Harper Green Ward